About Bookstores

By Bob Sommer

"The Book Sense Gift Certificate potential is still woefully untapped, and ... we are still sending $$$$$$$ to the chains ... every day." -- Carl Lennertz, ABA

His Honor, mayor of Three Rivers, Michigan (population 7,500), and owner of the town's eponymous Lowry's Books and More, is also the new owner of a bookstore in Sturges, Michigan, 22 miles away. The new Lowry's, formerly a 40-year-old Read-Mor store, is half as big as the 4,000-square-foot Three Rivers store in the larger, more affluent town.

Spurred by reports from regional trade shows regarding an increase in new independent bookstore openings, Bookselling This Week decided to survey each regional booksellers association to see if it was true. Was there an increase in newly opened bookstores joining regional associations in 2002?

Would it be suspect if Lawrence, Kansas -- the hometown of legendary crime writer Sara Paretsky -- did not have a bookstore specializing in mysteries? Fortunately, for the past 15 years, it has.

The December 9 issue of The New Yorker, which goes on sale December 2, will include the latest Book Sense insert, "Booked for the Holidays." The special feature presents the holiday picks of 13 independent booksellers, and the titles are drawn from the November/December Book Sense 76 list. (The full 76 can be reviewed here.)

By Joann Jacobsen-Wells

As a boy, Tony Weller assumed the staff of his father's downtown Salt Lake City bookstore -- an eclectic bunch of bibliophiles who were the denizens of the book-shelved forests he explored -- were just normal folk. You know -- well read. Articulate. Each an expert in some literary endeavor, each an evangelist for the glory of the written word. "It was not until I was in college that I recognized what a peculiar bunch of lovable weirdos and oddballs had been around me my entire life," Weller said.

High school students in Vermont and Wisconsin are taking the idea of working after school in the local bookstore to a new level. These students are doing more than just stocking bookshelves part-time -- they are helping to open and to manage new bookstores. It's all a part of two separate high school initiatives to teach literacy-loving students the ins and outs of small business administration and the rewards of bookselling.

The spirit of Dayton, Ohio's illustrious past is being channeled into the state's oldest bookstore, Wilkie News. This latest foray into history is yet another passion of Wilkie's owners, Jim and Pat Latham. Thanks to them, the 3,000-square-foot bookstore now offers a new café, a tribute in its décor and menu to the late, legendary neighboring Rike-Kumler Department Store.

By Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado

Last week, Book Sense and the History Channel announced that Maria's Bookshop in Durango, Colorado, was one of three bookstores recognized for their efforts in orchestrating a Fire on the Mountain fundraising campaign (for full story, click here). In the following article, Peter Schertz, co-owner of Maria's Bookshop, details the store's winning promotional campaign, and the steps taken to create it.

Willard Williams

When 19-year-old Willard Williams opened the Toadstool Bookshop in 1972 in his hometown, Peterborough, New Hampshire (population 5,000), he knew "absolutely nothing" about bookselling…. He does now.

In late August, the American Booksellers Association announced that it would be holding a lottery to win a color inkjet printer for booksellers who dropped off photos of their current Book Sense 76 displays at the ABA booth at the fall regional trade shows. The prize at each was the printer that the association was using at its booth to demonstrate the ease with which booksellers can download and print the weekly Book Sense Bestseller lists.

In 1998, when Stuart Brown finally tired of Jack Daniel's, he and his wife Joanna decided to devote themselves to books. They purchased a slightly dog-eared, 34-year-old bookstore after moving up to Telluride, Colorado (altitude 8,745), from Louisville, Kentucky (altitude 462), where Stuart was a marketing brand manager for the Jack Daniel's brands.

By Rita Brutsch

I am in London on vacation, and, after a few days of sightseeing, I can't think of anything better to do than run up and down Charing Cross Road and check out all the bookstores. At first, I'm not really looking for anything in particular, but, then, it occurs to me that this would be the perfect place to look for an out-of-print copy of a book I've always wanted to read, Cape Horn: The Logical Route by the legendary French sailor Bernard Moitessier.

A recently launched bookstore-based book club has fashioned a notable coalition of bookstore, local writers, and an area arts newspaper. The result has built in-store traffic, spurred sales, and helped increase customer awareness.

Each month, the altReader book club, which was created by the Durham, North Carolina-based The Regulator Bookshop and is co-sponsored by a local alternative newspaper, The Independent Weekly, taps a different local author to pick his or her favorite book and to lead an evening discussion devoted to that book.